Title: Two Odors, Two Worlds: Neuroethology Across the Life Cycle

By Jonathan Bohbot, PhD

Department of Entomology, The Robert H. Smith Faculty of Agriculture, Food and Environment

The Hebrew University of Jerusalem

Abstract

Animals inhabit different sensory worlds across their life cycle, creating distinct demands on the nervous system. In mosquitoes, metamorphosis separates aquatic larvae from terrestrial, flying adults and extensively remodels the nervous system, while both life stages rely on olfaction to navigate their respective environments. In this talk, I will explore how olfactory systems are adapted to these contrasting ecological contexts through two case studies. In adult mosquitoes, I will trace the detection pathway for borneol from peripheral detection through neural processing to behavioral output, examining how this odor is encoded across levels of the nervous system. I will then turn to larvae and investigate the ecological significance of skatole, asking what this odor signals in the aquatic environments larvae inhabit and why they respond to it. Together, these studies address a shared neuroethological question: how do nervous systems detect and transform ecologically relevant chemical cues into adaptive behavior?

How do nervous systems transform ecologically relevant chemical cues into adaptive behavior?

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